(pimping my ride) just because I can

After spending a bit of time this weekend working on a mates (electric) skateboard and doing a bit of quick preventive maintenance on my Mercanes I thought I'd just whack the old fish eye on the camera and have an in close look at the Mercane from a perspective you almost never see on the web.

Firstly you can see the strength and simplicty of the solid cast gooseneck and suspension system.

while it may not be a lot of travel, you can see it definitely has room to soak up bumps. Now while a pneumatic tyre may deform a little bit more (those who know about riding bicycles with 80psi in there will know that's not always true) there will be a point where the penumatic without suspension will pinch between the obstacle and the rim and you'll be walking home.

The rear has suspension too ... and as you can see a disc brake (which I've just put that tube onto to protect the cable sheath from rubbing).

The disc is easy to maintain (well unless you're fully and utterly incompetent, so I guess that's a good portion of Millennials I'm sad to say) and just requires occasional adjustment to ensure that its nicely aligned.

The wide tyres actually give good grip and personally I don't see any point in altering the system because relative to the diameter of the wheel that disc brake has enormous potential to lock that wheel up >>which you don't want to do<< if you can avoid it because a sliding wheel does not get as good a grip as one that's not (hence ABS).

What you do want to do howere is to develop a body reflex that when braking your put your weight back and down (shift your arse back and down, not stand like a statue).

Indeed the scooter has an integrated part of the chassis which allows you to put your foot right back there and take that weight. Look at the re-enforcement of the cast alloy based on its shape.

This isn't just intended to be sexy looking, its intended you'll put your rear foot (not both feet, keep one forward to help you with stability and feeling direction and slides) and take weight.

If you grew up on a scooter that had only a rear fender brake, you'll instinctively put your weight back there (because that's how you stopped), but if you've got some bicycle experience you'll have that brake lever right there on your hand and you have excellent control.

Being a disc it sheds heat well, so you can apply gently early to prevent too much speed build up on long down hills in town areas (although lengthy {like over a half a mile without a break} steep down hills on mountains will challenge it).

So far I really enjoy both my Mercanes (the single motor and the dual). Sure there are lighter scooters, sure there are more powerful ones, but for someone who wants a low maintenance scooter (bye bye checking tyre pressures or flat tyres, as I've had bicycles for years) this scoot is hard to beat.